The Ultimate Life-Form or a mere Shadow?
by doubledragon516
Summary: After a few minutes have passed during the fight with Devil Doom, Shadow begins to lose hope. Can Dr. Robotnik say anything to change his mind?


_A/N: Was listening to Eggman's confession speech from Shadow the Hedgehog the other day. That got the gears in my head turning; how would Shadow have felt during that scene if he was allowed to react? Here's how I'd see it going._

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Shadow didn't know how much more he could take. His fight against Black Doom had been going on for a while now and he wasn't making much progress. He was starting to lose hope; he felt drained and he was running rather low on rings. Black Doom had barely taken any damage at all! He was wondering to himself if he had gone over his limits. He was the ultimate life-form, but by no means was he immortal. Sonic and his friends were cheering Shadow on, but other than a tip or two now and then, they weren't being very helpful. It had even crossed his mind that maybe he should just give up...

"**Shadow, can you hear me?"**

It was Dr. Robotnik. Shadow didn't really care for the man; his constant attempts to take over the world did get rather tiresome. Still, there was no point in ignoring him; if he was capable of building armies of robots and had come quite close to taking over the world multiple times, he could probably give Shadow some sort of advice. The fear in his voice was evident; he wouldn't waste his time now by saying something trivial.

"**This may be the last chance I have to speak to you, so... what I said about having created you?"**

Shadow remembered. He had seen a group of androids that looked exactly like him. He, with the help of Omega, had found the doctor in one of his hidden bases. He had asked-no, he had _pleaded_ with him to know the truth. He wasn't going to forget any time soon.

"_Shadow and Omega? Why you traitors! You two are going to stop me?! Move aside!"_

"_Doctor, please, I need to know...those androids...the ones that...look like me... am I...?"_

"_Yes!"_

"_What?!"_

"_You and Omega are** my** creations! But you betray me as you stand here before me! So now... I will destroy you, turning you into scrap metal!"_

He couldn't even stand when he had first heard it. Why would he bring it up now, of all times...?

"**It was all a lie!"**

A lie?! Shadow didn't know what to think. Perhaps he was just lying in an attempt to get Shadow to keep fighting... or perhaps it was the complete opposite; he knew that Shadow was nearly finished, meaning that everyone else was finished too. If they were all about to die, he may as well spill his secrets... but, if he was telling the truth, how...?

"**Everyone thought you'd died during that horrible incident..."**

The memories were coming back to him. He and Sonic had used the Chaos Emeralds to go into their super forms. They had to stop the Biolizard, the Prototype Ultimate Life-Form, from crashing the Space Colony ARK into the earth. They had managed to defeat the beast, so their next move was to stop the space colony. He and Sonic had shot straight up to it. Shadow, even after all of this time, still remembered the promise that he'd made to Maria...

"_Shadow, I beg of you... give them a chance... to be happy!"_

He and Sonic had to use Chaos Control to send the space colony back, to take it off of its collision course. Sonic had kept enough of his energy to warp back to his friends, but Shadow had put everything he had into sending it back, to make sure that he could keep his promise to Maria. Then he remembered his super form running out. He had sacrificed his life to save the planet.

"_Maria... this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you..."_

After that... the next thing he remembered was waking up in that capsule to Omega trying to kill him. He could barely remember anything at the time. As of late, he had decided to himself that he _was_ an android, which was why he couldn't remember his past; it was the _real _Shadow's past, not his. So, if the doctor was telling the truth, how was he still alive? Surely he would have been destroyed in the planet's atmosphere as he fell?

"**But I rescued you... with one of my robots! You'd lost your memory, that's all!"**

So, Robotnik had rescued him... but why? What reason could he have? He couldn't possible have predicted the amnesia... Perhaps it was to create that army of Shadow clones? That didn't seem right either. If he was only being used for cloning purposes, why was he being kept hidden on a top-secret island? Plus, he had placed Omega, his most powerful E-Series robot, in the room to guard him. Everyone and their mother knew that the doctor was painfully obsessed with stopping Sonic; surely, he would have sent his most powerful creation after him? The only explanation was that he wanted to make sure that no one got near Shadow, or tampered with him. Still, he had his army. So, why would he bother keeping the original around? It just didn't make any sense. Unless...

"**You really ARE the ultimate life-form my grandfather created!"**

Of course... at the end of the day, the doctor was Dr. Gerald Robotnik's grandson. Everyone knew that, among all of his creations, including the Biolizard and the ARK, Shadow was Gerald's magnum opus. He was created for violence, but Maria had had such a powerful influence on him; she taught him of love and of friendship. Gerald hadn't expected Shadow to be able to comprehend emotions or care for others, so he was surprised, to say the least. He had, however, grown to see Shadow as a son. Shadow reciprocated Gerald's feelings; he had a deep respect for the man and saw him as the closest thing to a father figure that he had.

Nobody knew very much of the _current _Dr. Robotnik's relationship with his grandfather, or if he even had one; all that any of them really knew was that he respected him and admired his intellect. Perhaps there was more to it. _That_ was the real reason as to why he had saved him; it wasn't for power or revenge, he did it to keep his grandfather's greatest work alive. For all of the evil that Dr. Robotnik did, it was clear that he had _some_ good in him, somewhere. Surely, if a mad scientist, bent on taking over the world, was able to work for the greater good, what was stopping him?

He could feel a sense of power coming back to him. He was going to stop Black Doom and put an end to this once and for all. He was going to keep his promise to Maria. He was going to save the world and nothing was going to stop him. He shot a Chaos Spear directly at Doom's Eye, obviously doing damage. Black Doom used Chaos Control and warped away from him.

"Now... come, Shadow! Die along with these foolish humans!"

If he had to die to keep his promise to Maria, he'd _gladly_ die.

Still, he wasn't going down without a fight.

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**And there you have it! I'd love if you left a review, but I'm thankful enough that you read the story anyway!**


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